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Catching this, asked grover norquist about his worst nightmare on "now with alex wagner today." >> they have now said no to multiple different compromises that would have extended or made permanent the bulk of the bush tax cuts. so if they get to december of 2012, and they say, this is an unpopular position, that they would rather let all of them expire, those for the upper income taxpayers expire, the outcome could be $1.8 trillion, and it would be in a sense because of the pledge. because in being so pennywise on taxes, they became pound foolish. do you look at that with any kind of threat o...

Rail against the 2001/2003 bush tax cuts and the fact that they were not paid for and added mightily to our deficit. you're going to let them expire for the wealthiest americans, but you will keep them in place next year for the rest of us. and the question is, why not have the courage of your convictions and keep that principle equal and apply it equally to the wealthy and to the middle class if you really are serious about it? >> well, savannah, what we know is that the middle class is hurting right now. the president talked about that during the state of the union. we have talked about that...

Caught up with grover norquist, the most powerful man in republican politics. >> who made grover norquist king? >> the people have made this commitment not to raise taxes. >> if you raise tax rates, that is violating a tax pledge. >> 232 of the 240 have signed the no tax increase pledge. >> americans for tax reform would oppose any effort to weaken, reduce, or not continue the 2001/2003 bush tax cuts. rumors swept the capital this morning that the president and speaker of the house were close to an agreement on a deal, a deal that sent waves of panic through washington. democrats and republi...

Republican party that it's time for conservatives to step back from the brink. >> apparently norquist is rescinding that hall pass. he quickly walked back his comments during an interview with msnbc. >> there's certain things you could do technically and not violate the pledge but that the general public would clearly understand it's a tax increase. so i can be clear, americans for tax reform would oppose any effort to weaken, reduce or not continue the 2001/2003 bush tax cuts. >> and by not extending the bush tax cuts lawmakers could potentially bring in as much as $4 trillion in new tax reve...

Fighting and juggling and lines in the sand and the discussion about who is going to do what, when everyone in congress and the senate and the white house knew this would happen. >> it wasn't like we didn't know it was coming. we had votes in august, not in august. we weren't in august. but july and september to try to force this issue. democrats didn't want to talk about it. run-up to election and they didn't want a big debate on taxes, particularly this one going to election. it's put off. here we are, we procrastinated. in the 11th hour. all the uncertainty in the economy on what will happe...